162 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
mainly for profit, sycamore deserves to receive 
the preference, because it is more truly the tree 
of the woods than the maple; while the latter, 
one of the first trees to flush into leaf in spring, 
and with light yellow autumnal foliage contrast- 
ing well with the dark greens and russet hues of 
other trees, will always in parks and ornamental 
portions of estates claim the advantage over the 
sycamore with its heavier foliage, its greater 
tendency to run into big branches, and its 
gloomier aspect. 
As forest trees, both are energetic in growth, 
and can attain dimensions as large as the oak or 
the beech. They have both rather a tendency 
to run to branches, which can only be checked 
by growing them in somewhat close canopy. 
Grown along with beech, they soon shoot ahead 
of it in upward growth, but later on they are 
overtaken. Then they must either be thinned 
out or else protected by cutting out the beech 
interfering with them, whichever operation pro- 
mises to be ultimately the more profitable. 
Like the ash, maple and sycamore coppice 
freely and can stand a considerable amount of 
shade while young. But as they grow up into 
